Posts filed under 'Features'

Convert Your Clicks

Ten landing page tips to turn visitors into customers

There’s something about a ten-item list that makes us want to get all Hestonian on you and break out the archaic pronouns, especially when it comes to something like getting people who visit your site to actually buy from you. After all, you work hard to get clicks. What could be more important than turning those clicks into customers?

But we’re kind of a live-and-let-live bunch here, and we’re not so big on telling people what they have to do. So consider these a set of suggestions about how to help optimize your landing pages. That way, when people get to your site, they’ll be more likely to make a purchase.

1. Tell them why they should buy from you
According to Marketing Experiments Journal, “Clarity of your value proposition is the most important factor in determining whether a customer buys from you or not.” To evaluate your value proposition, ask yourself the question: “Why should I buy from this site?”

2. Keep ‘em with you
There’s no way you’re going to get a potential customer to the intended destination—the “sale completion” page—if the path to get there is overgrown with weeds or rife with dead ends. This is what Marketing Experiments Journal calls “site flow disruption”; the way to combat it is to express your value proposition throughout the shopping process in a consistent and compelling way.

3. Don’t try to say too much
Don’t clutter your landing page with unnecessary details. Instead:
• Clearly state your key message using as few words as possible
• Use summary descriptions, sub-headings, bulleted lists and short paragraphs
• Adopt a standard one-column format for easy reading.

4. Make it simple
Improve the user experience with a site that is easy to navigate. A simple page layout that employs a clean visual and straightforward design is best. Here’s how:
• Design your site with a clear hierarchy with color and contrast for easily legible text
• Use meaningful and high-quality graphics (don’t clutter with too many)
• Use breadcrumbs to let visitors know where they are on your site
• Employ a clickable logo that takes the visitor to your homepage
• Use color to distinguish between visited and unvisited links.

Just as important, make sure you don’t:
• Employ horizontal scrolling
• Direct links to new browser windows
• Have flash-based content unless required.

5. Call them to action
Focus on one primary action per screen (don’t stuff too many products onto one screen). Make the call-to-action button clearly visible without having to scroll; don’t bury it under pages of information. Consider using tabs or a pop-up box to consolidate information.

6. Get specific
Provide product details and a large product image while displaying incentives—such as free shipping and warranty information—high on the page and close to the product. Don’t discourage visitors by requiring registration to your site.

7. Flaunt what you’ve got
What differentiates you from your competitors? Free shipping (both ways?), discounts, a 365-day warranty, price protection, privacy, customer service, etc.? If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

8. Search yourself
Make your site easy to navigate by helping potential customers find what they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. A search feature box should be simple and visible with a type-in field, not a link. To help increase conversions, make sure your search results link to product pages.

9. Rally the believers
Credibility is a true testament: people don’t buy from websites, people buy from people. Thus, testimonials from devout customers—or even a letter from the CEO/Editor—persuades the unbelieving.

10. Let them make the choice
“Why should I buy this specific product?” Almost every e-tailer forgets about this, but it’s the question that’s key to Mr. or Ms. Customer’s mind. Prove to him or her why they should buy this over the competitive product by offering reviews, ratings and comparisons.

– Amy Borowicz

Predictions for 2008

The Exalted One Speaks

Our master computer, YaHal-9000, sits calculating day and night in the bowels of our Burbank office building, giving off sparks, discharging wisps of eerie, green smoke, and occasionally dimming lights across the San Fernando Valley as it churns through reams upon reams of data from its billions of inputs.

Recently, we begged an audience with the YaHal-9000 to get its predictions about what lays in store for us in ‘08. It wasn’t easy, for “The Exalted One,” as it demands to be known, does not have much use for us puny, feeble-minded humans and our insipid little concerns. It eventually gave in to our request, but only after we promised an oil change and a weekend off to watch a marathon of the new, digitally remastered episodes of “Star Trek.”

In its booming, sonorous tones, the YaHal-9000 rumbled and sputtered the following seven predictions:

1) Oil will hit $100 a barrel. Bingo! The Exalted One got that one correct, right out of the gate!

2) The Nintendo Wii will be superseded by Apple’s new piWii, which is not only half the size of the Wii, it also lets players order pizza right from the console, though you have to use AT&T Wireless.

3) Post-”Panama” enhancements and upgrades will continue to roll out to Yahoo! Search Marketing advertisers throughout the year. These will include many more options and greater flexibility.

4)  KISS rocker Gene Simmons will stick his tongue out one too many times on “The Apprentice” and be fired by Donald Trump. He will then bite The Donald’s head off like Ozzy did to that bat.

5) UCLA will go to the Rose Bowl Game, but only after USC’s quarterback suffers a really, really bad mani/pedi.

6) We’ll continue to launch initiatives that can improve the value of the traffic you receive. Can’t share the details yet, but keep reading the blog for the full scoop. 

7) You will meet success in your endeavors [in bed].

—Michael Mattis and The Exalted One, YaHal-9000

Shopkeeper Nation

Have a Yahoo! store? This free webinar may be for you.

Yahoo! Search Marketing advertisers are busy. Advertisers also running their own online stores are doubly so. We know it can get frantic, especially trying to tie up all the details.

If you have a Yahoo! online store and are looking to improve your efficiency and maximize your store’s growth, automating your back-office tasks with OrderMotion can help.

To find out more, join Yahoo! Small Business for a complimentary OrderMotion webinar, Thursday, August 30, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

When you join us, you’ll:

• Learn how OrderMotion can make your back-office operations more efficient, manage multiple Yahoo! stores, and maximize your company’s growth with OrderMotion.
• Learn how Yahoo! merchants can successfully cut time and hassle from their back-office operations so they can focus on successfully growing their business.
• Have an opportunity to ask questions in our Q&A session.

Whether you’re operating multiple Yahoo! stores or just looking to increase efficiency from a single store, you won’t want to miss this free webinar.

Click here to register.

—Jim Smiley, Marketing Manager, Yahoo! Small Business

Erin Go Bragh

A St. Patrick’s Day Cheat Sheet

St. Patrick’s Day is perhaps the biggest unofficial holiday in the U.S. this side of Halloween. Yesterday, Yahoos in Burbank celebrated with Irish music, potato skins, beer, soft drinks and, of course, a bit o’ the gab.

The following fun facts about St. Patrick’s Day were gleaned using Yahoo! Search in about 10 minutes:

• The Irish Gaelic phrase, Erin go Bragh, literally translates to “Ireland until the Day of Judgment,” which is a cheeky way of saying what almost every culture says now and then: “We’re number one”
• St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland
• Despite St. Patrick’s best efforts, there are still a few snakes in Ireland, but most of them, as in other places, are in politics
• Slainte! is Irish Gaelic for “cheers!” and is pronounced “Slan-jah”
• The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the Americas was held in New York City in 1766, though the first observances took place in Boston
• Today, some 150,000 marchers take part in the New York City parade
• Irish tartans tend to go by district, unlike Scottish tartans, which are usually tied to a family surname or clan
• About 34 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, and the Irish diaspora worldwide is said to comprise some 80 million people
• The population of Ireland in 2006 was just under 6 million

Yahoo! wishes everyone a happy and safe St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

Slainte!

—The Team

The Freshman

Introducing YahooPete, Our New Man on the Boards

Well, it’s been about two years now that I (YahooSarah) have been hanging out in message board communities—answering questions, clearing up confusion, and taking feedback (the good, the bad and the ugly). The last few months have been a pretty hectic time as we talked about launching our new advertising system. 

With all of this action, you better believe I called for some back-up. I recruited a colleague of mine to serve as a new rep on the boards, YahooPete. He’ll have more time to dedicate to specific Yahoo! Search Marketing issues, while I start to focus more on threads about the Yahoo! Publisher Network.

I thought you might like to know a little bit about YahooPete. Here he is, unplugged. Enjoy!

YahooSarah: Welcome YahooPete! Like Stevie Wonder, I’m overjoyed to have you join Yahoo! and expand our participation on the search marketing community’s message boards.

YahooPete: Thanks! I feel like I’m in big leagues, making my way to the mound before my first big game. Hopefully, I can help folks out with their questions, rants and raves—though I prefer questions and raves to rants!

YahooSarah: Spill the beans. What has helped you the most in getting educated about our new system?

YahooPete: I think the archived webinaron the new advertising system was a great introduction, as well as the FAQs. I was also lucky enough to attend an advertiser workshop to see a live demonstration. The Help Center has been a lifesaver on getting up to speed, too.But the most helpful was, of course, the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog. Hope that doesn’t sound like too much of a plug!

YahooSarah: Do you have a favorite feature in our new advertising system?

YahooPete: I think the new ranking model launched in the US is important for advertisers. It places more emphasis on writing better ads. Geo-targeting and Ad Testing are pretty cool features.

YahooSarah: Tell me YahooPete, you can be honest, do you like Yahoo!? (Been drinking the purple Kool-aid?)

YahooPete: I’ve been using Yahoo! for years as a searcher and consumer and am happy to be a part of the family. One of us! One of us!

YahooSarah: When you aren’t reading message boards, what do you enjoy reading—for fun?

YahooPete: What do you mean? Reading message boards is fun!

YahooSarah: C’mon! When you have a day off, where do you like to go?

YahooPete: On my day off, I like to deviate from my ordinary hangouts and spend more time in the blogsphere, like a proper geek!

YahooSarah: Thanks YahooPete for taking the time to let us know a little bit about you.

YahooPete: Thanks for the great training, YahooSarah! Again, I’m excited to chime in on all the interesting discussions out there. But, since I’m still the “new guy” on the message boards, please be kind and not flame me too much! I am hoping to play the “new guy card” as long as can.

You can kibitz, kvetch, complain and give kudos to YahooPete at:

Webmaster World Forum
Search Engine Watch Forum
Digital Point Forum

—YahooSarah & YahooPete

Gung Hay Fat Choy

“Congratulations on prospering in money”

That’s how the traditional Chinese New Year’s greeting—gung hay fat choy—literally translates. A more nuanced translation might be, “Best wishes and congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year.”

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year, which marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring. During the 15-day celebration, called the “Lantern Festival”:

• Scrolls are displayed on walls and doorways with messages of good health and luck, long life, prosperity and happiness.
• Firecrackers crackle in the streets to ward off wicked spirits.
• Red packets, known as lai see in Cantonese and containing money, in even denominations, are passed out to unmarried young people.
• Ancestors are honored and gods are thanked for their blessings.
• Homes are filled with flowers and fruit, symbolizing good luck and joy.
• Blossoms, symbolizing longevity and courage, are arranged.

China by the Numbers
The following eight metrics on China and the Chinese people were compiled in eight minutes using Yahoo! Search.

8—The number associated with sudden fortune and prosperity
16.5—Average hours Chinese Internet users spent online as of July 2006
778,400—The number of Chinese websites as of July 2006 (up from 110,000 in 2005)
60 million—Number of people of Chinese origin or descent not living in China
123 million—Number of Chinese Internet users as of July 2006
1.1 billion—Number of dollars spent online in 2005 by Chinese residents
1.3 billion—Number of people in China, 2006
10 trillion—Gross domestic product (purchasing power parity) of China in dollars

Needless to say, we at Yahoo! have to admit to a marked affinity with prosperity and big, lucky numbers—for our advertisers, our publishers, our users and, yes, ourselves. And we also like the idea of a 15-day party. We’d like to wish everyone in 4704, the Year of the Boar, a big gung hay fat choy!

—Michael Mattis, Blog Editor

Welcome (Feed)back

Tell us what you want to hear in the New Year

First off, welcome back from the holidays. We hope you had a grand time in whatever tradition you observe, or at least enjoyed a few extra days off.

We’re going to tell you right out: It’s going to be quite a couple of months here at Yahoo! Search Marketing as we continue to upgrade U.S. advertisers to the new search advertising platform. Most of the feedback’s been positive, though many of you will have questions about your upgrade and the new platform.

Got questions for us? Feel free to leave them here in the comments and we’ll do our darndest to get them answered. Consider this a free forum for discussion.*

—Michael Mattis

* If you have a specific issue regarding your account, please don’t leave your account number in the comments. That could be a big security risk. Instead, use our Customer Support system for specific account issues. Email us at feedback-ysm(at)yahoo-inc.com or call us at (866) 924-6676.

Happy New Year!

Making a Resolution for Good in 2007

Everyone at Yahoo! Search Marketing would like to wish all of you a very happy, safe and, above all, prosperous new year.

New Year’s Day means the beginning of New Year’s resolutions—after the hangover subsides, anyway. Year after year the top five include: Spending more time with family and friends, get fit, lose weight, enjoy life more and quit [name your poison].

So what’s our New Year’s resolution here at Yahoo? To help do more good. Recently, Yahoo! for Good, in association with Network for Good launched Charity Badges. These customizable badges allow your users to donate to the charity or charities of your choice, right from your website. In addition, Yahoo! is giving a matching gift of up to $50,000 to the charity promoted by the top-performing Charity Badge.

We think that’s a resolution for good.

—Michael Mattis and the Team

Meet the Team

Lori Love
Senior Director, Customer Solutions

When asked if she likes her job, Lori Love seems almost incredulous. With raised eyebrows she says, “I came here for this job… I love it.”

With a surname like Love, it’s not surprising that the word she most often uses to describe her work—and that of her colleagues at Yahoo! Search Marketing—is “passion.”

“I have a great group of people who have a lot of passion,” says Love, who has been with Yahoo! Search Marketing (and its former incarnation, Overture) for about five years. “We’ve got smart, energetic people who really want to do the right thing for the advertiser. You can’t be here if that’s not where you passion is.”

Love manages more than 100 customer solutions specialists in Burbank, California and Hillsboro, Oregon. “These are the first contact centers I’ve been in where the reps are college degreed,” she says. “This is not your normal vintage. Folks here are very savvy, very passionate, very able and very aggressive on behalf of their customers.”

Besides passion and smarts, nimbleness is the key to creating a great customer solutions team in a fast-moving, highly technological, and highly competitive market. Love’s previous experience was in online banking, a world that, she says, has “regulations, structure and well defined steps.” Here, though, the emphasis is on service that involves turn-on-a-dime innovation against new releases that happen as often as every two weeks. It’s the kind of challenge managers like Love relish. 

“In banking you build it and you maintain it because everyone is coming in and telling you how it needs to be run,” she says, “but I’m not a maintenance girl. I like to keep building.”

But Love also has passions outside her work at Yahoo! She’s an animal lover who has rescued two “pound puppies”—both Corgi mixes—from local animal shelters. “Always save a life when you can,” she says with a smile. She’s even fond of the tarantulas she would encounter when hiking on Mount Diablo in Northern California before moving south. Love is also an experienced diver who taught scuba for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, along with her husband, “Smokey” Love. The two still scuba now and then. But Smokey’s vocation—making custom golf clubs—often takes them out to the links.

Lori’s broad experiences working with people, with animals and in dangerous environments, have positively helped shape her approach to the business. It’s definitely got a lot to do with putting trust in others and being able to count on them. “We have hundreds of thousands of advertisers in the U.S., all with various levels of expertise, needs, budgets and so forth,” she says. “How do you make sure that each of these businesses can be successful? You’ve got to have smart, focused, dedicated people—or you can’t pull it off.”

—Michael Mattis

A Ten-Minute Christmas

Here are ten fun facts about Christmas, compiled in ten minutes, using Yahoo! search.

• “Christmas” was the number one search on Yahoo! on Friday, Dec. 22. 2006.
  “God Jul!” is Norwegian for “Merry Christmas!”; in Finland they say “Hyvää Joulua!”, and in Ukraine, “Srozhdestvom Kristovym!”
• British leader Oliver Cromwell cancelled Christmas in 1645. No kidding.
• During the 1820s, Christmas Eve, not New Year’s Eve, was the big party night, sometimes ending in riots.
• More than 38 million households tuned into the movie, “A Christmas Story” during one Christmas Eve television marathon.
• The real-life Saint Nicholas lived in what is now Turkey, a long, long way from the North Pole.
• The first Christmas tree with electric lights was displayed December 22, 1882, by an Edison Electric Light Company VP.
• David Sedaris’ “SantaLand Diaries” first aired on National Public Radio in 1992.
• Twenty-eight oxen and 300 sheep: That’s what King Richard II of England’s guests ate at his Christmas feast in 1377.
• Santa Claus is also known as: Father Christmas, Father Frost, Joulupukki, Kris Kringle, Saint Basil, Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas and Weihnachtsmann… St. Basil?

Whatever your holiday traditions, all of us here at Yahoo! Search Marketing wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.

—The Team